Animated music video: "What a Shocking World This Is for Scandal" (I Never Says Nothing to Nobody)

Sixteen years ago Bob Vasile and I recorded a Pratie Heads cd called "We Did It! Songs of people behaving badly."

We got the idea from Clarke Thacher, head of the local folk song society, who said every proper British Isles traditional band should have a collection of murder ballads. We expanded the remit to include the other seven deadly sins and this was the opening song, as true today as it was back then. I found it decades ago in a tiny folk song collection, the collector averred it was written in 1818. Now, sixteen years later, I've made an animated music video for it.

That was long before the internet. Now I can look it up and see it's usually called "I Never Says Nothing to Nobody," and that it was first published in 1826. And further, that Thomas Hudson himself performed it in "the singing taverns and supper clubs that influenced early Music Hall." And yet further, that Hudson published 13 collections between 1818 and 1832. I'm going to see if there are other delights within. Supposedly the tune was heard from Henry King in Hampshire in 1906 by the collector George Gardiner.

What a Shocking World This Is for Scandal What a shocking world this is for scandal The people get worse ev'ry day, when ev'rything serves for a handle To take folks' good names away. In backbiting vile each so labors The sad faults of others to show body I could tell such a tale if I liked But I never says nothing to nobody, fallerollolliday. The butcher, so greasy and fat, When out, he does nothing but boast He struts as he cocks on his hat As if he supreme ruled the roast Of his wealth and his riches he'll prate Determined to seem such a fine body He's been pulled up three times for short weight But I never says nothing to nobody, fallerollolliday. Tis a snug little house I reside in And the people who're living next door Are smothered completely such pride in As I never have met with before But outside their door they don't roam A large sum of money they owe body When folks call they can't find them at home But I never says nothing to nobody, fallerollolliday. The publican, thriving in trade With sorrow is now looking down His sweet little pretty barmaid Has a little one just brought to town He's not to be seen much about His wife is a deuce of a shrew body The gossips are on the lookout But I never says nothing to nobody, fallerollolliday. The new married couple, so happy, Seem quite the quintessence of love He calls her, before every chappy, "My darling," "My Duck," and "My Dove." In private there's nothing but strife Quarrelling, fighting o'erflow body In short, quite a cat and dog life But I never says nothing to nobody, fallerollolliday. I could tell if I liked such a tale Of neighbors all round, great and small That surely, I think, without fail, Would really astonish you all. But here now my short ditty ends As I don't want to hurt high or low body I wish to stay in with my friends So I never says nothing to nobody, fallerollolliday.